TORQ-fuelled pro mountain bike Oli Beckingsale has been busy winning races of late. After recovering from a major injury at the end of last year, he is now back up to strength and has been back on the top of the podium! Here’s Oli’s view from the front..

It seems like winning bike races is like waiting for a bus, you wait for ages and then 3 come along at once. The week after my win at round 3 of British National XC Series at Hopton Woods I headed up to Scotland to take part in the Glentress 7hr, the main event in a week of cycling activities at the Tweedlove festival. As much as I love riding my MTB I am not a masochist and teamed up with Scottish rider and Endura supplied Rab Wardell to ride the pair’s event.

The Glentress 7hr is a great event where people still push hard and compete, but there is a relaxed and fun feel. This combined with a lap that takes in some of the best trail centre trails in the UK and some natural sections and you have the makings of a tough, but sweet day out. After 11 laps of the course Rab and I took the win in the pair’s category, fair play to the tough guy who won the solo category completing 10 laps!

Two weeks later I was north of the border again for the 4th Round of the British XC series at Kirroughtree. The course was based around the trail centre there, but with heaps of off piste single trail that was made super technical by Saturdays torrential rain. Thankfully it was dry on Sunday, my legs were going round well and I kept it steady and upright on the technical roots to take my second national win of the year.
 
Full report and some great photos from Andy Whitehouse at the British Cycling site here. http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20120618–2012-British-Cross-Country-Series-Round-4–Kirroughtree-0 .With a few weeks off MTB racing its road racing time, with the National Road Champs, Beaumont Road National Series and Stafford Crit National Series.